A Camping Invitation Turned the Tide

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By Vincent M. Mallozzi

May 10, 2015

Sally Logan Gibson, the daughter of Sarah B. McConnell and Robert R. Gibson of Charlottesville, Va., was married Saturday evening to Ali Nouri, a son of Afagh Kamali and Mohsen Nouri of Portland, Ore. The bride’s father, who received permission to officiate by the Circuit Court of the City of Charlottesville, led the ceremony at Ash Lawn-Highland, the former residence of President James Monroe in Charlottesville. Nilou Nouri, the sister of the groom and a minister with American Marriage Ministries, took part in the ceremony, which included the reading of Persian and American vows.

The bride, 28, who is keeping her name, is known as Logan. She is an associate in the strategic innovation group at Booz Allen Hamilton, the management consultancy in Washington. She graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and received a master's degree in public policy from Harvard.

Her father is the executive director of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. Her mother hosts “With Good Reason,” a public radio show produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

The groom, 40, works in Washington as the deputy legislative director to Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota. He is also the senator's senior adviser on energy, agriculture and environment issues. The groom is an adjunct professor of alternative energy at George Washington University.

He graduated from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and received a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton.

His parents own EZ Storage, a storage facility in Portland. The groom’s mother is also an interior designer.

The couple met in September 2008 while working in Washington for Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia.

“I was sitting at the front desk when he walked in, and my heart just went fluttering,” Ms. Gibson said of Mr. Nouri. “I knew he was a scientist, and he was just so handsome. I was really hoping he would get the job.”

He was hoping much the same.

“I chatted with her briefly, and she was so positive and beautiful and smart, I felt like we had an instant connection,” he said. “I was hoping to get hired so that I could see her again.”

He landed the job, but not Ms. Gibson.

“We became friends, as we were apprehensive about dating in the office,” she said. “I was just undone by my liking of him, but we both thought it was best to keep things professional for a while.”

That “while” lasted nearly two years, during which Mr. Nouri got to know Ms. Gibson as “a cheerful person always filled with great conversation.”

Things began to change in May 2010, when Ms. Gibson, who was planning to celebrate her birthday with friends on a camping trip that included tubing on the James River, invited Mr. Nouri.

“I was really nervous before I hit that button and sent him that email,” she said. “I knew that if he accepted, things would probably change for us as far as our relationship was concerned.”

He was pleasantly surprised, and he accepted the invitation.

“The fact that she wanted me there gave me more than an inkling that she was now interested in me more romantically,” he said. “I was a bit nervous about the whole thing, but we had a great time.”

By June, they were dating steadily.

“He’s very charming, and he is the funniest and smartest person I ever met,” Ms. Gibson said. “I couldn’t let him get away.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page ST18 of the New York edition with the headline: A Camping Invitation Turned the Tide. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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